Down North and Up Along ' 
ning over an old man who tottered across the 
road under Dan's nose, and then clasped our 
front wheel in both bony hands as though to 
anchor us there. He gazed at us, and we at 
him, and finally we spoke to him, and he re- 
plied, " Sorr ? " Thinking him deaf, we spoke 
louder, but he still replied, " Sorr ? " Then it 
dawned upon us that we were talking in an 
unknown tongue, and we inquired if he spoke 
Gaelic ; " garlic " they pronounce it here. He 
nodded in the affirmative and also assured us 
that he could " speak enough English," and 
began a friendly conversation in his native 
Gaelic, which we on our part kept up in well- 
chosen English, and thus we passed a most 
agreeable half-hour, each saying exactly what 
he thought, without danger of giving offence 
to the other. 
To say " yes, sir, to a gentleman, and yes, 
ma'am, to a lady," has evidently been a part 
of the polite education of these regions, but 
" sorr " has nearly superseded " ma'am," being 
applied universally and regardless of sex, and we 
received the polite responses, " yes, sorr," and 
"no, sorr," the whole length of Cape North, — 
usually with unconscious gravity, but in the 
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